Arjun Sachdev has asked: In NSW Barry O'Farrell's Liberal government cut $20m from the regional fire services that have been battling the bushfires. With the benefit of hindsight, that seems like a short-sighted and clearly wrong decision. Joe Hockey is appointing the head of the Business Council of Australia to oversee an audit for federal government spending "savings". The Australian newspaper says: "the terms of reference explicitly support the idea of "user-charging" and "co-payments" for government programs." How does Christopher Pyne reconcile the conservative ideology of reducing public expenditure against the clear need for appropriate expenditure on public services?